The objective of this master thesis is to describe tools and methods used in audit practice. The thesis is split into two parts - theoretical and practical. The theoretical part defines and describes external and internal audit and related tools and techniques. The theoretical part was sourced from multiple resources - both literature and online. The practical part was written from an Big4 audit assistant point of view. It describes an external auditor job -testing and analyzing a ficticious client

The audit firms play an important role in the capital markets by verifying that auditors provide reliable information to the decision makers. However, trust in auditing firms has been questioned following Enron‘s failure and accounting scandals at WorldCom and other companies. As a result, Arthur Anderson failed and the number of big audit firms fell to four firms and no one knows who might be next. Defond and Francis (2005) believe that a critical trigger occurred when Deloitte & Touch issued a “clean” peer review report on Arthur Andersen in December 2001, just a few weeks before Andersen publicly announced that it had shredded documents related to Enron audit. The credibility and integrity of the profession‘s self-regulation program was immediately in doubt. To protect public interests and to restore confidence in the capital markets, the USA government issued the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in 2002. Similarly, the Financial Reporting Council in the UK provided the Professional Oversight Board with similar mission. This thesis aims to explore the role of independent audit regulators in promoting confidence in the audit profession, and analyse the big four firms’ strategies that react toward these regulatory changes in the audit markets. The lack of studies in this area supports the use of grounded theory as a research methodology. 24 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the top management level of the audit regulators and big four firms’ partners. This study contributes to the literature as it provides a better understanding of the satisfaction of the big four audit firms toward the new independent regulators, and how these firms react toward the additional requirements of the independent inspectors.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2003. Graduate Programme in Administration. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (180-193). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ99259

The aim of this thesis is to define the audit in general and to define its meaning and essence. Documents obtained from the company demonstrated the method of implementation of internal audit. On the basis of these documents, the internal audit results for the years 2013 and 2014 were evaluated by individual departments and by the overall results. Based on the findings, the company was recommended the establishment of an internal audit of the accounting. Questionnaires were sent to a sample of companies in the South Bohemia. The questionnaire investigated whether the company has established an internal audit, how often they perform it, which person performs an internal audit, on what action the internal audit is focused and whether the employees are motivated to improve their work.

Change is a timeless phenomenon. There are different catalysts for change, a significant catalyst is digitization that affects society, organizations and individuals. An industry where digitization has been discussed a lot is the accounting and audit industry, where the foundation lies in creating, validating and reporting financial information. Current technological developments change the way in which the industry operates, thus managing the financial information. Digitization is an organizational change in the industry and thus also examined how this change affects the professional role. The purpose of the study is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the effects of organizational change that arises from digitization and how specific factors can contribute to a successful change process. In addition, we wanted to identify the working methods of the future and how the professional role in the accounting and audit industry will develop. What has been shown in the study is the positive attitude towards digitization and changing working methods. This can be explained by the adaptability of the individual, the company's success in its implementation of digitization and the age factor in the company. Digitization has resulted in a more flexible way of working which contributes to reduced physical contact. Consulting and analysis are identified as significant competencies as digitalization's development of the industry. Additionally, a seventh success factor, Customer Relationship, is added.

Genom åren har det skett en del förändringar i redovisning- och revisionsbranschen i Sverige. Detta har inneburit att enheterna för redovisning och revision har separerats hos några av aktörerna. KPMG och PwC ingår i Big Four och dessa två bolag valde år 2018 att specialisera sig på revision och därmed avyttra redovisningsenheten till riskkapitalbolaget Aspia. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka upplevda effekter hos medarbetarna efter uppdelningen av redovisning och revision. Studien bygger på tre teorier: Maslows behovsteori, teori om medarbetarnas inställning till förändringar samt Herzbergs tvåfaktorteori. TIllsammans med tidigare forskning presenteras sedan en analysmodell. Studien undersöks med hjälp av en kvalitativ metod och semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts för datainsamling. Totalt har fem personer som arbetar som redovisningskonsulter eller revisorer med någon form av koppling till antingen PwC, KPMG eller Aspia intervjuats. Studiens resultat visar att medarbetarnas upplevda effekter av förändringen skiljer sig åt beroende på titel inom branschen. Studien visade även att storleken på individernas verksamma kommun spelade en betydande roll för deras upplevda effekter på faktorerna motivation, tillfredsställelse och karriärmöjligheter. Individernas inställning till förändring är ytterligare en faktor som har visat sig ha en betydande roll för hur medarbetarna mottagit förändringen som skett inom branschen. / The accounting and auditing industry in Sweden has gone through some changes over the last years. One big difference is that the units of accounting and auditing has been separated for some of the actors. KPMG and PwC are a part of the Big Four and in 2018 these two companies chose to specialize in auditing and thereby divest the accounting unit to the venture capital company Aspia. The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceived effects of the employees after the division of accounting and auditing. The study is based on three theories: Maslow’s theory of needs, the theory of employees’ attitudes to changes and Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Together with previous research, an analysis model is then presented. The study is investigated using a qualitative method and the interviews are semi-structured, conducted for data collection. In total, five people who work as accounting consultants or auditors with some connection with either Pwc, KPMG or Aspia. The result of this study shows that the employees’ perceived effects of the change differ depending on the title within the industry. The study also showed that the size of the individual’s active municipality played a significant role for their perceived effects on the factors motivation, satisfaction and career opportunities. Individuals’ attitude to change is another factor that has been found to play a significant role in how employees received the change that has taken place in the industry.